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Roosevelt Franklin
(Loretta Long) and Matt Robinson (Gordon) with Roosevelt and his mother.]] Roosevelt Franklin appeared on Sesame Street from Season 1 (1970) to Season 7 (1975). It goes without saying that his name is simply a reversal of that of president Franklin D. Roosevelt. The precocious Roosevelt Franklin attended Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School, where he taught the class as often as not. He taught concepts like family, pride, respect, geography and not drinking poison. Roosevelt was a cool kid who loved to scat, rhyme and sing the blues. His mother was proud of him. In addition to his elementary school, he had his own stadium, Roosevelt Franklin Stadium, where he coached Headball. Roosevelt has a younger sister, who wishes that she could go to school like he does. A Day on Sesame Street, Western Publishing, 1979. Drawings by Irra Duga. Matt Robinson, who played Gordon during the first three seasons, created the character and performed Roosevelt's voice. Children's Television Workshop Season 2 press release, November 1970: "A versatile artist, Robinson created the character Roosevelt Franklin which Muppeteer Jim Henson has translated into an engaging black puppet figure. Robinson has written several songs for Roosevelt and voices the character as well." For a while, Roosevelt was considered one of the main characters on Sesame Street. He even had his own record album, The Year of Roosevelt Franklin. Despite significant popularity, he was dropped from the cast following letters complaining of a negative African-American stereotype, and because his rowdy elementary school did not set a good example for children.Borgenicht, David. Sesame Street Unpaved page 135 Roosevelt continued to surface occasionally in storybooks, however, as late as 1996. In 2009, a behind-the-scenes photograph of guest star Paul Rudd playing with the puppet was featured in Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street. Roosevelt Franklin also made a cameo in a season 45 episode in 2014. Criticism Roosevelt Franklin was the source of criticism by some African-American intellectuals who scrutinized the character for signs that he was too black, or not black enough. For example, in a 1973 issue of literary digest Black World, the article "Sesame Street: A Linguistic Detour for Black-Language Speakers" took Sesame to task for the way that black characters on the show spoke: "The fact that Black Language is a legitimate linguistic system is not recognized on Sesame Street... Adherents to the fallacious assumption that poor Black children are verbally destitute, the producers of Sesame Street attempt to eradicate what they perceive as a "communicative deficit" by subjecting their audience to large doses of middle-class verbiage... An analysis of the content of Sesame Street will reveal that only a token effort is made to acknowledge that some Black people speak differently than white people and that this effort, in fact, constitutes a gross misrepresentation of Black Language." The article took issue with the language used in a sketch in which Roosevelt's mother asks Roosevelt to spell his name: Sketches :For sketches at his school, see Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School. Songs *Roosevelt Franklin Counts *Roosevelt Franklin's Alphabet *Days of the Week Book appearances * The Sesame Street Storybook, inside cover only (1971) * Sesame Street Finger Puppets (1971) * The Together Book (1971) * Bert's Hall of Great Inventions (1972) * Sherlock Hemlock and the Great Twiddlebug Mystery (1972) * The Sesame Street 1, 2, 3 Storybook (1973) * Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum (1974) * The Sesame Street ABC Storybook (1974) * Big Bird's Busy Book (1975) * See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Smell No Evil (1975) *''Bert's Big Band Paint-with-Water Book'' (1976) *''The Sesame Street Postcard Book'' (1976) *''Paper Doll Players'' (1976) * Big Bird's Red Book (1977) * The Great Cookie Thief (1977) * Muppets in My Neighborhood (1977) * The Sesame Street Block Party Coloring Book (1977) * The Sesame Street Mystery Coloring Book (1977) * The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook (1978) * The Exciting Adventures of Super Grover (1978) * The Sesame Street Cookbook (1978) * Cookie Monster's Storybook (1979) * A Day on Sesame Street (1979) * Ernie's Work of Art (1979) * Sesame Stories (1979) * Down on the Farm with Grover (1980) * I Can Do It Myself (1980) * The Sesame Street Dictionary (1980) * The Sesame Street Pet Show (1980) * The Count Counts a Party (1981) * Oscar's Rotten Birthday (1981) * A Day at School (1982) * First Day of School (1982) * Grover Goes to School (1982) * Everyone Makes Mistakes (1983) * The Songs of Sesame Street in Poems and Pictures (1983) * My Sesame Street Yearbook 1984 (1983) * Sign Language ABC (1985) * Big Bird Goes to the Doctor (1986) * Happy Mother's Day! (1989) * Elmo's Lift-and-Peek Around the Corner Book (1996) See also *Roosevelt Franklin (rap group) Sources Category:Sesame Street Characters Category:Muppet Characters Category:Sesame Street Character Sketches Category:Sports